The Best Movies About Gangs
List Rules
Vote up your favorite movies about street gangs.
Here is the list of the best gang movies of all time. These are films that focus on gangs, life as a gang member, and the conflicts between rival street gangs. This genre can also include hood movies, heist movies, and various other sub-genres. Unlike hood movies, however, gang films can be much more stylized as well as take place during various decades and points in time. There are quiet a few movies about Los Angeles gangs as well as movies about the Crips and Bloods. Life among street gangs can be difficult, to say the least. The conflicts spawned from such an environment can make for great drama and storytelling.
Including Boyz n the Hood and The Warriors, this list of the best gang movies has all of your favorite movies about growing up gangsters, gang violence, and protecting street reputations.Â
What are the top street gang movies of all time? The movies on this list are some of the best thug-life films anywhere.
list ordered by
- Living a life marked by violence and racism, neo-Nazi Derek Vinyard (Edward Norton) finally goes to prison after killing two black youths who tried to steal his car. Upon his release, Derek vows to ...more
- Bound by Honor (aka Blood In, Blood Out) is a 1993 American crime-drama film directed by Taylor Hackford. It follows the intertwining lives of the three Chicano relatives, Miklo, Cruz, and Paco from ...more
- Tre (Cuba Gooding Jr.) is sent to live with his father, Furious Styles (Larry Fishburne), in tough South Central Los Angeles. Although his hard-nosed father instills proper values and respect in him, ...more
- After growing up in the gang lifestyle of the Los Angeles projects, 18-year-old Caine Lawson (Tyrin Turner) wants a way out. Everyone around him, including his unpredictable friend O-Dog (Larenz ...more
- Amsterdam Vallon (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a young Irish immigrant released from prison. He returns to the Five Points seeking revenge against his father's killer, William Cutting (Daniel Day-Lewis), a ...more
- In this gritty police drama from director Dennis Hopper, street-wise cop Bob Hodges (Robert Duvall) and hotheaded rookie Danny McGavin (Sean Penn) grapple with their new partnership on the ...more
- As a young man, Montoya Santana (Edward James Olmos) is introduced to gang life on the tough streets of Los Angeles after spending his youth in reform school. Soon Santana finds himself facing an ...more
- A teen gang in rural Oklahoma, the Greasers are perpetually at odds with the Socials, a rival group. When Greasers Ponyboy (C. Thomas Howell) and Johnny (Ralph Macchio) get into a brawl that ends in ...more
- As he grows into a teenager on the streets of the Bronx in the socially turbulent 1960s, Calogero (Lillo Brancato) gets taken under the wing of neighborhood mobster Sonny (Chazz Palminteri). Sonny ...more
- A turf battle between New York City street gangs that rages from Coney Island to the Bronx. The Warriors are mistakenly fingered for the killing of a gang leader. Soon they have every gang in the ...more
- End of Watch is a 2012 American drama thriller film written and directed by David Ayer. It stars Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Peña as Brian Taylor and Miguel Zavala, two Los Angeles Police Department ...more
- When an inner-city Detroit foster mother (Fionnula Flanagan) is murdered in a botched holdup, four of her now-grown adopted children suspect it was no random killing. Rising musician Jack (Garrett ...more
- Drug tycoon Nino Brown (Wesley Snipes) and his minions, known collectively as the Cash Money Brothers, have rapidly risen to the top of the New York City narcotics trade. Under Nino's heartless ...more
- Four Harlem friends -- Bishop (Tupac Shakur), Q (Omar Epps), Steel (Jermaine Hopkins) and Raheem (Khalil Kain) -- dabble in petty crime, but they decide to go big by knocking off a convenience store. ...more
- Frank Lucas (Denzel Washington) earns his living as a chauffeur to one of Harlem's leading mobsters. After his boss dies, Frank uses his own ingenuity and strict business code to become one of the ...more
- It's Friday and Craig Jones (Ice Cube) has just gotten fired for stealing cardboard boxes. To make matters worse, rent is due, he hates his overbearing girlfriend, Joi (Paula Jai Parker), and his ...more
- During a 10-year sentence for murdering the leader of a rival South Central Los Angeles gang, Bobby Johnson (Glenn Plummer) finds religion and rehabilitation with the help of Muslim inmate Ali. Upon ...more
- Police drama about a veteran officer who escorts a rookie on his first day with the LAPD's tough inner-city narcotics unit. "Training Day" is a blistering action drama that asks the audience to ...more
- American journalism student Matt Buckner (Elijah Wood) moves in with his sister and her family in London. There, he meets football hooligan Pete Dunham (Charlie Hunnam), who introduces him to his ...more
- City of God is a 2002 Brazilian crime drama film directed by Fernando Meirelles and co-directed by Kátia Lund, released in its home country in 2002 and worldwide in 2003. The story was adapted by ...more
- Soldier Anthony Curtis (Larenz Tate) returns to his Bronx home after a nightmarish tour of duty in Vietnam. But the nightmare continues for Anthony and his friends as they suffer the indignities of ...more
- When a student writes the police code for homicide, 187, inside a textbook owned by teacher Trevor Garfield (Samuel L. Jackson), he feels threatened. The principal dismisses the incident, but, soon ...more
- In 1988, a groundbreaking new group revolutionizes music and pop culture, changing and influencing hip-hop forever. N.W.A's first studio album, "Straight Outta Compton," stirs controversy with its ...more
- Innocent young black man Ashtray (Shawn Wayans) is forced to move into a tough Los Angeles slum with his family, including his oddly streetwise, pot-smoking grandma (Helen Martin). Before long, ...more
- A musical in which a modern day Romeo and Juliet are involved in New York street gangs. On the harsh streets of the upper west side, two gangs battle for control of the turf. The situation becomes ...more
